1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transporting fish that have been freshly caught or fish that have been cultivated in their living state to markets, restaurants, consumers and the like. Throughout this specification and claims, "fish" refers to all commonly edible marine animals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional method of transporting fish, i.e., general fish, shellfish such as crab, lobster, etc., mollusks such as trepang, cuttlefish, octopi, etc., and sea urchin and the like is to put them into a live-fish tank. This, however, requires a large amount of water to be put into the fish tank so that the fish may freely swim or move, and therefore, poses a problem in that the weight thereof is heavy, the transporting cost is high, and large quantities of fish cannot be transported with a single live-fish tank. Further, there is a problem in removing fish from the tank, in that scooping out the desired fish from among the many in the tank is a time-consuming process.
In the past, an alternate method for transporting fish 1 has been proposed, which comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, putting a vinyl bag 8 into a cardboard box 25 or the containers, putting fish 1, and an aqueous solution with an oxygen generating agent 23 into the vinyl bag 8, and tying the mouth portion of the vinyl bag 8 with a rubber band 24 so that the vinyl bag 8 is sealed.
However, in the conventional system shown in FIG. 1, the interior of the vinyl bag 8 cannot be completely sealed, and oxygen cannot be supplied unless the oxygen generating agent 23 is used. This results in the inconvenience that the fish can be transported only for a given limited period of time while maintaining them in a live state. Another problem is that the fish 1 move around within the vinyl bag 8, a consequence of which is an increased amount of oxygen consumed so large that the oxygen generated by the oxygen generating agent 23 is consumed in a short period of time. The live transportation over a long period of time cannot be achieved. There is an additional problem where the fish 1 thrash about wildly, resulting in damage or scratches to the surface of the fish, lowering their value.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method which can transport live fish over a long period of time with less damage.